DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Yahoo Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing
Did the Playoffs starting make wanting to get the deals done or was it naturally?
“A little bit of both. I would say more natural time than anything. Obviously, you have to prepare for all different kinds of scenarios, so you need a certain amount of time to work all of those out. I just think it happened naturally, more than timeline with the Playoffs for sure.”
How much does the stage wins help you with the result you ended up with?
“It was big. That is why we started the stages years ago – for those scenarios where you just get a bad break at the end – at least you get rewarded for what your performance was in the beginning. Certainly, it was crucial for us to keep us in a stable position coming into this weekend.”
As you look at 23XI for 2024, how many races would you look to run in the third car?
“I don’t know – I think a handful at the most is what we would look to do, but the situations would have to be perfect and aligned. There’s talks about who we can put in where and when, but it wouldn’t be a big bulk of races for sure.”
Is your driver length the same length as the manufacturer deal for 23XI?
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
How close did the discussions with Ford get?
“I don’t have any comments on the speculation there.”
What is about Kansas that has played into the strength of Toyota?
“I understand the reasoning for thinking it’s a Toyota track, but we’ve seen a lot of contenders throughout the races, sometimes it just hasn’t worked out for some reason or another, but certainly, the results have shown that Toyotas have been strong here, but it is so hard to think or bank on what has happened in the past and that it will relate to right now. I do think for the 11 team, all I can speak to is me personally, there is a feel in the car that I try to find. It doesn’t matter what tire changes or car changes or anything like that. I search for that feel, and if I get it, we typically run up front. That’s the correlation for us, and if a team struggles here, they typically look at the notes of the guy who runs well and they copy it somewhat and then all the teams run well, so that is kind of the correlation. It seems like we’ve built upon some setups that 23XI and JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) has shared that has been successful for both.”
Does this track have any more significance for you because of 23XI’s success here?
“It has. It’s been a special track because when 23XI has won, I’ve been in the top-three both races that it has happened. It is special in that sense. I got my very first Cup start here in ’05. It is. It’s a special track. One you feel confident going, when you come.”
What do you look for in the practice session today?
“I don’t know typically why I haven’t been totally up to speed in practice. The Spring was an outlier. We were dominate from lap one of practice, all the way through, but typically, all of the other Kansas races we’ve been pretty middle of the road and I’ve kind of panicked overnight because we are not where we should be, and then the race – they dropped the green and then we just go to the front. Hopefully, we can be pretty solid in practice. The track changes so much from practice to race, so I just look for characteristics that I know will be good for passing. Everyone is going to try to run up top because that is going to be the fastest lane, but I’m looking if I can run somewhere else and have the speed be really close, because that is how you make passes. You just can’t run in the wake of the car in front of you, so I try to make sure my car can maneuver, and sometimes that gives us slower lap times in practice.”
Can you talk about the growth for Bubba Wallace?
“It has been a progression. I think last week is a good example of where he’s progressed. Typically, in racing you very seldom have a trouble-free, adversity-free race. I think early on in his career a couple of years, if he had something adverse – like a spin out, like he had at the end of stage one – it would derail his day. Just mentally it would derail him, and he would struggle to come back from it. The difference is we see him rebounding and finishing better probably than where he was running all day, so that is a good trend for that team – is get better as the day goes, versus the opposite – where they used to be – which was they are as good as they are going to get right off the truck, and typically went down from there. That is what I’ve noticed – is he has been able to mentally overcome adversity better.”
Have you been a part of his progression?
“We’ve constantly tried to point out drivers that have come back from penalties or crashes early and show the result of this what is capable of happening if your stay in the game and that is where your character gets defined – is when you face adversity, how do you respond to it?”
How do you look at signing what could be your last racing contract?
“It does for sure. When you are younger, you see it as a financial stabilizer. For me, it’s how many more Daytona 500s do I have left? How many more opportunities do I have to win certain events that are special to me personally or help me accomplish a goal that I’m trying to accomplish? It really puts in perspective the urgency of accomplishing as much as you can here in the short term. When you are younger in your 20’s or low 30s, you have so much runway, where if you don’t get it this time, I’ll get it the next. I’ve been very, very fortunate in the financial planning that my team has put together – we never planned past 40 as far as income was concern, so this is all me telling myself, how many more opportunities will I have? I want to compete at a high level in my final year. I don’t want to kind of trickle off. I’m way too competitive to do it. There is no way I could go to the race track not knowing that I could win. I understand there will be a day when things fall off. Things get slower for you. You will never know when that day will come, but now, that I’ve been doing it so long – it definitely puts some urgency in years like that, where I have all of the things, I need to compete each and every week. This could be one of the best shots we’ve had to win it all. You really put an emphasis on it knowing there is only so many total races left. If you want to get to your personal goals, you’ve got to capitalize on every single weekend.”
How have you grown throughout your career?
“I would say it’s natural to get a little more emotional when those situations come about because like last week – how many more chances at the Southern 500 will I have to win? We don’t even know – will our cars compete next year? Will we be as strong? No one knows. There is so many ebbs and flows in the sport, so you always want to take advantage of the opportunities. Chris Gabehart (crew chief) keeps a strict tally of when our running or winning capability is a one. Last week marked our 59th race winning capability weekend. We haven’t won nearly that many – 59 times. That is a lot since 2019. When we look at why we haven’t? I feel comfortable saying I’m doing all I can do. Sometimes these things are just out of our hands. I can only do my job to the best of my ability and continue to try to bring the team up. I really feel confident – no matter what the outcome – that I’m not letting any weekends slip away. I wish I honestly had the discipline way back when. In the early 30s, and 20s, that I do now with my work ethic. It’s paid huge dividends.”
Was the tire loose?
“It was. What happened – on the video – it takes a while to get high-res video, but the socket is turning, turning, turning and it never stopped. The left rear is one of the most sensitive corners. If it was the left front, we probably could have gotten away with it, no problem. It is just the way that track works. It’s the most sensitive corner on the car. When it’s not all the way tight, you are going to feel it dramatically and it would continue to just back off to that safety clip and then it would have damaged the hub so bad, that we wouldn’t have been able to get a tire on.”
What does it mean to you to re-sign with Joe Gibbs Racing?
“I said from the very beginning. I want to start and end my career at Joe Gibbs Racing. That’s continued to be the goal and I think this is another step towards that. I don’t know if this is the last one or not, but I know how many more times that I will run for sure, but that doesn’t mean that it’s over at that point. There is still an opportunity to go beyond that as long as I know I’m competitive at a high level. I think people like Kevin Harvick are an anomaly being that fast and that competitive that late in his career. That is going to be really, really hard to do. I don’t think the runway is that long, but certainly it is capable of being one more beyond this one, but that is all pending. You just never know. Next year, I could show up and start running into things that I didn’t even see. Who knows how this goes, but I think being with the Gibbs family as certainly been at the forefront of my goal. I’ve always wanted to end my career in one car. That’s still the goal, and knowing they give me the best opportunity to win a championship is something you don’t want to take for granted because there are only so many championship-caliber race teams out there, and they are certainly one of them.”
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